Fish with a Cat's Face. No, really!

John Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot is a grab bag this week. He suggested we find a real cool picture... it could be anything. If you go to his website, you'll find that many folks have already left their links in the comment section to their really cool photos. They are cool. If you have the time, go check them out.

The coolest pictures I've ever taken are with kids, but since I don't have permission to post them here, I'll have to settle for members of the animal kingdom, specifically, fish. More specifically, koi. The koi in our pond. Cool koi.

Not the expensive imported, $1,000 a fish variety, but the kind you can buy for under a hundred dollars. Even under fifty dollars.

The most interesting fish I have ever seen is this one koi who got my attention last year when, as I stood gazing at the pond and the fish (as I am often wont to do), I noticed that the one fish's face very much resembled the face of a housecat.

No kidding! I had called my husband to see and we both laughed! We do have catfish in the pond, but it is this one koi that looks like a cat.

I got tired of saying "the fish with the cat face" everytime I talked about it, so I named it CatFace.

Friends and neighbors who have seen it will tell you it's the weirdest thing.

Truth is, what appears to be the eyes of the cat face are not the eyes of the fish, but some type of sensory nostril.

I know, fish don't breathe through their nostrils, but they have them just the same. I didn't believe it either until I verified it at this website. Koi have nostrils. I didn't have time to research if all fish have them. But I know that koi do!

The fish's real eyes are actually just behind the nostrils. But you don't see them in these pictures because they are hidden by the coloring on either side of its face. Anyway, the nostrils give the appearance of feline eyes.

The "nose" line and "mouth line" arejust fish markings that coincidentally make for an amusing feline feature.

Do you see the cat face? I know it's not as clear as other photos I've taken, but shooting a moving subject through rippling water with the reflection and other lighting inconsistencies has challenged me and my camera.

 I'm not giving up. One day, I will have that perfectly clear photo, one that captures the face in all its cat-like likeness. Y'all will be the first to see it when it happens. It will be super cool!

Then, I might send CatFace's photo to National Geographic!

Here are some interesting koi facts I gleaned from the internet, including the links to their websites:

The word koi comes from the Japanes word nishikigoi. They are a variety of common carp. Writings about koi were first discovered in early Chinese writings dating back to 265-316 AD. According to Pondarama.com, carp fossils go back 20 million years.

Koi can smell with their nostrils! Read this newsletter from Springfield Water Garden Society to find out how koi see, hear, and smell. Did you know they have teeth?

That's all the research I have time for tonight.